Chapter Text
The cold, eerie sound of groans roamed in the air. Gently pushing the door open, Isagi rested his left hand on the gun which remained in its holster.
Another errand run. Lately, him and Kira were the only ones sent out to scavenge for whether it be food, supplies or water. Isagi couldn't help but grow tired of the role of delivery boy.
"Clear.", he whispered, holding the door open for Kira to enter. He pulled the glock from its holster, steadying his wrist with his free hand. The door shut behind them.
The sound of shattered glass cracking underneath their feet sounded deafening in the abandoned grocery store. If it hadn't been empty, they sure would have been in a sticky situation. Isagi and Kira split down different aisles, eyes scanning the store for any remainders of what once was a human person.
"I think we're good!", Kira said, relaxing his body in an instant.
"Stop yelling." Isagi's body slightly eased up, but remained on edge. "Be sure to check the expiration dates, even on the cans."
"Yes dad.", Kira mumbled as he scanned the shelves for any food that hadn't gone off date yet. "Any water? Supplies?"
"There's a few matchboxes. But honestly, not much noteworthy." Isagi squatted down next to the blonde. "What about here?"
"Off date."
"All of it?"
"Yup."
"Yikes." He sighed, resting his forehead against the corner of the shelf. "This was a bust."
"Don't fret, Isagi. We'll be fine. I'm sure of it."
"... Still, it's..."
"Do you trust me?"
Isagi looked up at Kira, blue eyes meeting brown. "I do."
"And I trust you, Yoichi. With my life, even!", Kira smiled at him. "We've had worse shortages. Surely Chigiri or Kurona will have found something."
"If they're tasked with staying at our camp, I highly doubt it."
Kira looked away in embarrassment. "Y-Yeah, you're right. Oops."
"Anyhow.", Isagi stood up. "Food that's off date is better than no food. Diarrhea isn't ideal, but a smell test should do the trick on how edible the food is."
"Ready the backpack!"
---
Isagi sighed as he dropped the backpack on the floor. He drowned out the chattering of Kira and Chigiri in the background, as he once again sifted through the findings of the day. Cans of soup, cans of spam and cans of mackerel- so, oh so many cans.
"Whatcha got?", popped a voice next to him.
"Guess.", he smiled.
"Cans, cans!" Kurona sat down on the floor next to Isagi. "There's so many cans."
"All off date, sadly. Doesn't mean they aren't completely inedible, though. Anything happened while we were out?"
"Nope. Nothing interesting."
"Right." Isagi stood up, turning to face Kira and Chigiri. "Being holstered up in an old bunker is nice and all, but we need to move out of here soon."
"Why?", asked Kira. "It's safe here. It's practically impossible for the zombies to get in."
"It isn't safe anywhere.", Isagi responded. "Soon, we'll have seen everything there is to see in the area."
"Isagi's right.", Chigiri said. "We've pretty much mapped the surrounding area we can reach on foot. I might be fast, but there's only so far we can go without a vehicle."
"Vehicles? We are literally in the zombie apocalypse, do you think there is any vehicle that still has gas?!", Kira argued. "We stay here, end of story."
"That's not your decision to make.", Isagi glared.
"But it is yours?"
"We're a group. Majority vote wins. Gas isn't easy to find, if at all with it expiring, but a bike isn't hard to steal from a backyard. We cover ground easier and faster, find a place with fertile ground, hunker down in that area."
"We are in a fucking bunker, Isagi! I assure you, it's not gonna be any safer-"
"We have no fucking food, Kira! It isn't gonna magically respawn in the stores we have checked 700 times! We need to go."
"I agree with Isagi.", Kurona stated.
Kira huffed. "Ofcourse you do, you always do."
"What's that supposed to mean?", the small red-head crossed his arms.
"Look, we're making this harder than it needs to be.", Chigiri butted in. "If you want to stay here so bad, by all means, stay. No one is forcing you to come with. But you can't force us to stay here either."
Kira rubbed his face with his hands in frustration. "You're all gonna die out there-"
A loud thump interrupted Kira. The four of them turned their attention towards the entrance door, swearing with every repeating thump the door budged more.
"Safe, huh? Don't make me laugh, idiot.", Isagi berated as he pulled the gun from its holster. "Next time you have one of your bright ideas, do me a favor and shut the fuck up so you don't lure these monsters our way."
As the others readied their weapons, Kira stared at the door, frozen. This place was safe, right? It was a military bunker, after all-
The door burst open, a mix of groans, gurgled screeching and gunshots firing filled the atmosphere.
"Isagi, left!", Chigiri shouted as he shot his rounds at the incoming undead.
"Gotcha!"
Reluctantly, Kira grabbed his weapon. Aiming for the doorway, the gun trembled in his hands.
He shot.
The bullet went in between the two zombies approaching Chigiri, who were swiftly gunned down by him.
"Steady your aim, Kira, now's not the time to be useless!", the redhead scolded him.
The three up front started backing up, as the horde became more and more overwhelming. Kira raised his weapon once more, shooting his shot. His bullet collided with something.
"Motherfucker-!", Chigiri yelled, instinctively grabbing hold of his arm. "Did you have to take it that personal?!"
"I-I'm sorry-"
From Chigiri's dropped defenses, an undead rushed past him, crashing into Kira. He screamed as he fell over, the zombie swiftly meeting its demise with a bullet to its head.
"Get up.", the voice was tired. Upset.
Kira looked up, seeing the ruckus had died down together with the horde. "Thank you, Isagi. You really saved me there."
"No thanks to you, asshole. The one shot you took hit Chigiri."
Isagi put his weapon back in its holster, making his way to Chigiri as Kurona shut the doors.
"Did anything get in?" He rolled up the other's sleeve, inspecting the wound. It was only a small one, a slight grazing. "At least it didn't go in."
"I don't think anything got in, but let's just rinse it out while we can."
"On it, on it!"
Kurona took over Chigiri's care, as Isagi switched his focus to the helpless boy lying on the floor.
"Get up. We're leaving."
Kira pushed the zombie off of him, the pain in his forearm growing stronger and hotter.
"Change of plans-" Isagi pulled his gun from the holster once more. "Stay down."
"I-Isagi-?!"
"Why are you bleeding? You didn't do shit other than get attacked."
"I've been bit?!"
"Bullshit that you didn't feel it sooner."
"We can still chop my arm off, right?", Kira panicked, backing up further against the wall as Isagi inched closer, gun pointed at his head.
"Too late. If you said it the second the havoc died down, I would have gladly chopped your arm off. But you, once again, fucked up by not doing or saying anything."
"Isagi, please..."
"This is your own fault."
"I trust you with my life, Isagi! I know you better than anyone, you wouldn't hurt a friend!", Kira sobbed with every desperate attempt as he plead for his life.
"That's your mistake, not mine."
Isagi pulled back the hammer, a loud bang filling the quiet bunker.
---
"This is so high...", Kurona sighed, staring up at the garden fence which Chigiri and Isagi were already seated on.
"It's not that high, just climb over it.", Chigiri responded.
"I'm shorter than you! Shorter!!"
"Here." Isagi leaned down, reaching out his hand for Kurona to grab onto. He did as so, slowly making his way onto the fence. "Watch your step, don't want you getting hurt."
Chigiri snickered, earning a confused glance from the two. "The difference is just funny."
"The difference?"
Kurona sat down on the fence, as the three of them hopped over to the other side.
"A bit over an hour ago you shot Kira with zero hesitation, and now you're babying the hell out of Kurona!", he laughed. "It's just funny."
"Well, Kira was bit. I had to kill him." Isagi explained as he inspected the tires on the bicycles. "You guys are acting as if I wanted to kill him."
"You didn't hesitate at all, Isagi. It was a bit scary, to be honest."
"Kurona..." Isagi stood up, facing the two redheads. "I've had to learn the hard way to not wait too long. He could have turned any second." He turned back around, slowly rolling the bikes to the other two. "The venom spreads insanely fast. If you're bit, you better hope you immediately notice it. You have about a minute to chop off your own limb before the infection reaches your vitals like your heart or your brain."
"Turning doesn't take long after that, huh?", Chigiri asked as he took one of the bikes from Isagi.
"Nope. Matter of seconds, minutes, I'm not too sure. I couldn't afford to hesitate. We could've all been done for." He sighed.
After finally getting the bikes over the fence, the three continued their travels to further grounds. The sun had started setting above the skyline of the small town, bathing the area in a soft, orange glow. The sight, paired with the wind in their hair, felt nearly nostalgic. A feeling of a time long passed, where every evening appeared as peaceful as this one. But with darkness looming over them, they should find shelter soon.
Continuing their bike, they stumbled upon the access to a highway.
"Should we hunker down over there for the night?", Chigiri pointed at an old gas station. "I may be fast, but I'm not actually a panther so I don't have night vision."
"You're right, we should wind down for the night. Visibility is key."
"Right, right!" Kurona pulled the breaks, stepping off of his bike. Isagi grabbed him by the arm.
"There might be zombies in there. Or worse, people. Lets approach this with care."
"What's your call, captain?", Chigiri beckoned.
"I'll creep in closer from the back, and try to see if I can get a view through the window. You two stay here and wait for my signal."
With a nod from the other two, they all abandoned their bikes on the sides of the road, Kurona and Chigiri staying behind in the taller grass. Isagi walked in a broad arch, making his way to the backside of the gas station. Twigs cracked under his shoes, as crickets chirped in the quiet, dark night. He slowly crawled forward, staying low to the ground. With every step he took, an uneasy feeling in his gut started growing.
Isagi had made his way to the wall, close enough to see a soft glow coming through the closed blinds. Whatever or whoever was inside, they had a light source. Luck be on his side, the blinds were the kind that rolled down on the outside. He gently lifted up the corner, taking a peek inside. He could make out the shadows of three people. They sat around a candle, seemingly having dinner together.
Isagi's heart stopped. Three people, four plates. There was someone else-
"Hands where I can see them. I have a gun, it's loaded, I've used it before, blah blah blah. You know how it goes."
He sighed, slowly raising his hands above his head. Shit. And this guy was taking the piss out of him, too?
"Now slowly turn around. I gotta make sure you're not, y'know... Dead."
Isagi slowly turned around, his gaze meeting the one of the guy who held him at gunpoint. Blue eyes crossed yellow.
"Well holy shit, aren't you a sight for sore eyes?", the guy chuckled.